TONBRIDGE — VICTORIAN VILLA
A full home renovation, completed over two and a half years.
What started as a derelict Victorian station master’s house became the forever home for a family of six.
THE PROBLEM
My clients had just bought a derelict Victorian property — empty for some time, neglected before that. Solid bones. But almost everything needed doing.
Their wish list was, in their own word, optimistic: basement swimming pool, roof extension, rear extension, garden outbuilding to build a racing hovercraft, full renovation throughout. They also recognised their estimated budget to get it done — £700,000 — was optimistic.
THE INTERVENTION
Before a single drawing had been produced — before an architect had even been appointed — I brought a structural engineer, quantity surveyor and the client’s preferred contractor to the site. We stood in the overgrown garden and worked through the wish list together.
The assessment was unambiguous: the basement alone would consume the entire budget. The full wish list would cost £2 to £2.3 million. That conversation shaped everything that followed. My clients chose to raise their budget with clear eyes — before a single fee had been paid to a designer or architect.
Two and a half years. Fifteen trades on site simultaneously at its most complex. When the client became unwell, I took on her role — making decisions, keeping things moving. When the contractor became overwhelmed, I introduced a structured planning methodology, built it with him, then stepped back so he could own it.
The result: five bathrooms, a bunk room with hidden loft den, a rear extension, a side extension with swimming pool, a 100 square metre basement, a clean energy solution — solar, battery, air source and green roof — and a landscaped garden. And an outbuilding at the end of it — though not, in the end, for a racing hovercraft!
THE OUTCOME
Final cost: £2.2 million — almost exactly the quantity surveyor’s estimate from that first meeting in the overgrown garden.
The family have lived in it to the full for nearly a decade. Almost nothing has changed. That’s what we did, together.
“Kate’s project management wisdom, her forward thinking and early identification of potential problems ensured issues quietly disappeared as she steered the critical path which included over 15 trades at one point.”
— Sally, Tonbridge
